Beauty within Chaos, Chaos within Beauty
by Zaidita
Summary: Losing his life on the battlefield, Jasper finds beauty within the chaos, but the thing that holds beauty holds its own chaos as well. Dedicated to Linkkinparkk and written in response to her Beautiful Chaos! Thanks for everything! Pairing AJ oneshot


This one shot was written in response to Linkkinparkk's Beautiful Chaos (check it out) and dedicated to her for being such a great friend! Here's to you!

Pairing : Alice and Jasper

* * *

Gun shots.

They ripped through the peaceful silence, tearing it apart. Destroying it. Shredding it. And what was there to replace it?

Chaos.

Devastating chaos.

Jasper jumped from his bed, his heart racing with adrenaline. It pounded furiously in his chest as if to plead with him, to implore him to stay within the safety of his tent as to allow it to continue beating. He ignored the wordless pleading, and stumbled through the darkness. His hand soon found the hilt of his sword and he listened in silence to the sound of his own breath amongst the sound of chaos outside. It was hard, shaky, and as loud as the gun shots that echoed in the distance.

Everything about his body spoke of the dangers the night had in store for him. Each breath was as loud and clear as the fires that rung through the night, or the screams that followed. His heart continued to pound in furious desperation, while his knees and hands shook with anticipation.

Still he tied the sword to his side and reached for his gun. He placed his hat on his head and took a deep breath. His body calmed instantly. His hands and knees became steady as his heart rate became no more than a simple reminder that he still lived, and his breath was lost amongst the sound of the pandemonium outside his tent.

He stepped out into the night and snow.

Around him bodies hurried past each other, preparing their weapons and shouting orders. Jasper could all but taste the fear and urgency that was rolling off each running body as they pushed past his slowly moving figure. He allowed them to push past him, listening to the chaos around him. Their sounds were the only things that told him this was real.

"General Whitlock, sir," his lieutenant spotted him from the distance and saluted as badly prepared soldiers scurried into order.

"I am only Major, Lieutenant," Jasper reminded him as the young man shook with fear from the tearing sound of more gunshots in the distance.

"Incorrect, sir," he continued. "Sir Taylor passed away with fever only a few moments before the news of the attack arrived, leaving you in command."

"Whitlock, a general," a voice spat. "He is only twenty!"

Seventeen, Jasper mentally corrected the man.

He turned to look at now would be Major Marks, a man of thirty-five and no distinguishing features, but still his elder. He was only seventeen, and still a few months to go from turning eighteen, but no one here knew that. He had lied in order to join the army, and had been tall enough to convince them of being only twenty.

The three of them stood amongst the running bodies, amongst the chaos, glaring at each other. The realization that he was the General, the highest rank amongst the premature army, slowly began to overtake him. He would have to take order now. Everyone's life was dependent on him now, not just his group. "This is no time to argue. Lieutenant Cottingham, tell me the situation."

"The Union Army was lead here by Indians, and surprised the neighboring campsite. Captain Wade has taken a small force of men to help hold them off and away from our own campsite and provision. I am prepared to take the next –"

"You will stay here Lieutenant," Jasper commanded as a soldier coaxed a horse towards them, and the masses of scurrying bodies thinned. "I will take the soldiers to help Captain Wade."

"But sir," the young man who was still shaking with fear tried to argue, but Jasper would have none of it.

"That is an order Lieutenant," he shouted as Marks smirked at the two. "Prepare the men here in case the Union troops make it through our defenses. Marks will be in charged!"

He began to mount his horse as Cottingham continued his argument. "But Sir Whitlock, you do not und'rstand. They are surrounded! It is . . . suicide! Wade said so 'emself! You migh' be able to beat'em back and away from our forces, but chances are no confederates are makin' it out alive!"

Marks continued to smirk up at the fleeting figure of Jasper as he led his horse away silently. "What are you trying to prove Whitlock? You want to die a General, or just not live to see yourself demoted when this ends badly?"

Jasper pulled the reins of the retreating horse to turn and face the smirking man, his glare ripping him to pieces. "Perhaps to you, this army is nothin' more than a ladder to step up, but to me it's much more! Men are out there dyeing right now, without a leader! Will you stand up and take charge and ride out there to die? Are you man enough?"

Marks face tightened in anger as the remaining soldiers lined up and snow began to fall once more in a light blanket over last night's snow. Jasper took the man's silence as an answer and began to shout orders, "Prepare the remaining men and we will keep the Union bastards at bay."

The two campsites were not full enough of men to be considered a real fighting force. They were simply a traveling group of soldiers traveling to meet up with a bigger army. If that is what you could call this chaos of order. Jasper looked at the few men he had behind him as they followed him to their deaths. Most probably didn't even know how to shoot.

They arrived to the battlefield unprepared for the utter slaughter that lay ahead. It was not union soldiers at all, or at least by uniform. Jasper growled as he saw the savages running through the crowd of soldiers with their primitive weapons. They worked in two's and three's to corner individual soldiers that had been separated by the havoc around them. The savages raised their crude weapons above their heads, beating the soldiers mercilessly until their bodies lay lifeless within the blood stained snow. Other's remained in small groups, poised and firing arrows that whizzed through the air to cut down soldiers. Those that fell to the ground, but had not died were finished by the crude weapons, axes and clubs that splattered red upon the white snow.

"Charge!"

Utter chaos.

So much, it was impossible to realize everything that happened around him. His horse galloped into the middle of the chaos. Tents burned around him, wagons, boxes, all aflame. He swung the sword at the savages that tried to take him down as gunshots rung around him. His sword collided with a body, blood splattering across his face and the freshly laid snow as his horse reared back on its hind legs. There were shouts of pain and cries for help as the horse landed upon whoever had tried to attack him. He jerked the reins to slash at another Indian who rushed his side, but he never made it; a gun shot from the side sent the Indian crashing to his back. Jasper struck his heels into the horse's side to speed further into the chaos. More Indians fell by his blade, and more of his men by their own crude weapons, and as they fell, Indians began to take over their guns.

"The gun powder!"

Jasper pulled back on the reins and the horse once more reared with the sudden change of direction as the flames licked the sky.

"Whitlock!"

Jasper snapped his head to see the Indian crouched beneath the falling snow as his horse began to lower to the ground. He could see the arrow shrinking in length as it was pulled backward with the string and two more Indians joined. Their eyes burned with resolve as bright as the flames that casted their orange glow upon the white snow, staining it with its burning color, as it fell over the red erasing it.

The arrows sung through the air as clear as the gun shots that sung around them. As the hoofs struck the ground, the arrows struck into the horse's neck and one into Jasper's arm. He screamed as he was thrown from his horse into the numbing cold of the snow

"The fire!"

He had no time to relish the pain of crashing into the ground as a large explosion inspired the screams of a new panic mixed with the ever-present song of gunfire.

He stood up, wrenching the pointed end of the arrow from his arm.

"Get down!"

It was as if time slowed just for him to feel the pain.

"Get away from the barrels!"

The arrow made a narrow path through his lower side, followed by another, and another. Each strike was clear with its pain. Each penetrating stone within his side and chest a cause to cry out in agony. Each ripping pain that seared through him with a new arrow was it's own agony, never mixing with the stabbing pain of the others for relief.

"It's gonna explode!"

Jasper fell to his knees as the chaos reached its climax. Barrels of gunpowder alighted with the spreading flame and burst into a cloud of fire that spread its flaming arms outward in all direction. Despite the turmoil that it inspired with the shouting, running bodies, there was something beautiful about the flames that licked upwards toward the falling snow from the heavens. There was something beautiful about the light they casted across the white snow that continued to fall, that continued to erase the blood with it's coat. There was nothing more beautiful.

Except for her.

"Hold your ground men!"

Jasper fell to his hands as a cough gave way to blood that dripped from his mouth, but he did not take his eyes off her. The angel of death. A beautiful chaos.

She floated across the snow as if it did not exist. Her bare feet did not even leave evidence of her having graced it with her touch. The snow danced around her in a chaotic swirl, as the bodies of men ran about her, but no one seemed to notice her, no one but Jasper.

The corners of her lips pulled upward into a small smile.

"Ready!"

He fell to his elbows as the pain began to burn around and within the wounds, but still he kept his eye upon that chaotic beauty. Her short black hair billowed about her with the gushing winds that sent the snow into a frenzy, but her golden eyes remained narrowed on him.

"Aim!"

Swirling, piercing, and glowing golden eyes.

"Fire!"

She continued her slow approach with the same knowing smile as the flashes of light emitted from behind her. She never flinched or strayed from her path, and her paced remained the same. He didn't care how long it took her to reach him, or how long the mayhem continued on behind her. The running bodies and retreating figures were just shadows to him next to this chaotic beauty. Her walking amongst it only seemed to amplify her beauty.

"More Indians are arriving from the forest!"

He reached for his sword and dug its pointed end into the ground. The wounds stretched and his body protested with a searing, burning ache as he lifted himself back to his knees and slowly to his feet.

"Union soldiers!"

"Fall back!"

She stopped before him, hardly half his height. She tilted her head to the side curiously as she peered into his eyes with her golden ones. They entranced him, enticed him, as something within them twisted in a chaotic swirl. The dancing shadows around him began to move with more fervor, more fury, as the shouts and fires grew louder and closer together, but they all were beginning to blur.

"You shouldn't be here ma'am," were the only words that he could muster before it turned into a gurgling cough of blood.

"And neither should you," she flashed her glinting white teeth at him as another round of fires sounded in unison.

Her smile was yet another beauty he had never beheld. He never once wondered why such a beauty walked amongst such chaos, but something about her, about her smile, told him there was a deeper chaos within her. Something he knew should frightened him, that should make him pull away, but her beauty was something that demanded to be admired. She moved closer to him, pressing her body against him gently, but no warmth emitted from the tiny frame. Her breath was as cold as the winds that gushed around them, sending the flames higher into the air, and the snow crashing into their bodies.

"This may hurt," her twinkling voice whispered in his ear as her lips brushed the warm skin on his neck.

He gave into a new pain now. One that was a piercing, stabbing within the fragile skin of his neck and soon turned into a searing, burning that boiled his blood, yet he was not afraid.

Even within this chaos there was beauty. Even within the beauty, there was chaos.

* * *

Thanks for reading, make sure you check out Linkkinparkk's story and my other Jasper and Alice and Jasper stories if you liked this one. Thanks again to linkkinparkk for all you do! You're yhe best :)


End file.
